PREFACE. xli 



morning, if rain is to be expected soon ; and if a shower is 

 to fall in the afternoon, they close some time before *." 



" The Hottentots," says the same author, " do not seem 

 to have any knowledge, neither do they take the least ac- 

 comit of the course of nature. The only thing they re- 

 mark is, that every year they see the bulbous plants push 

 out of the ground, blossom, and decay ; and according to 

 this almanack they reckon their own agesf." 



Nor is it only from the bulbous plants that we take these 

 warnings of weather, or learn the hour : the Marvel of Peru 

 is called the Four-o'clock-flower, from its opening regu- 

 larly at that time. Many of the species of Convolvulus 

 and Campanula, also, have their stated hours of rest ; and 

 a variety of other plants too numerous to mention. It has 

 been observed of a species of broom, that it may with pro- 

 priety be termed an American clock, because it grows there 

 in every pasture, begins to display its yellow flowers every 

 morning at eleven, is fully open by one, and closes again 

 at two. 



" Till morning dawn, and Lucifer withdraw 

 His beamy chariot, let not the loud bell 

 Call forth thy negroes from their rushy couch : 

 And ere the sun with mid-day fervor glow, 

 When every broom-bush opes her yellow flower, 

 Let thy black labourers from their toil desist : 

 Nor till the broom her every petal lock, 

 Let the loud bell recall them to the hoe. 

 But when the jalap I her bright tint displays, 

 When the solanum fills her cup with dew, 

 And crickets, snakes, and lizards 'gin their coil, 

 Let them find shelter in their cane-thatched huts." 



GRAINGER'S SUGAR-CANE, Book 4. 



* Thunberg's Travels, Vol. I. p. 286. 

 t Ibid. Vol. II. p. 197. 

 J Marvel of Peru. 



